NAB Part 2

I’ve spent part of the day poking around to find out where the multimedia and podcast/vodcast content for NAB is hiding … it didn’t make intuitive sense to me that there wouldn’t be anything at all.

I listened to Tim Robbins — not on the NAB site — I think it must have been recorded by someone with a little recorder that was smuggled in.  Sound quality could be heard clearly most of the times though there were times when the crowd buzz obscured the words (tip:  if  you’re going to bootleg, make sure you’re near a speaker so at least you have half a chance of getting a decent recording)

And I did find some multimedia video presentations on the NAB site.  Most of them were 3:00 pieces, fast paced with short clips of people talking about various aspects of the show.  Well produced, of course.  After all, these are broadcasters with the latest tools.

I am listening to a videocast on Business on the Internet — comes up on my computer in Windows Media Player — mostly audio with an occasional slide to illustrate a concept, or put a person’s name on the screen.  Mostly audio with minimal video.

The odd thing is that I lost the page on the NAB site where all this multimedia content is located.  So I’ve watched once, I’d like to watch again but I can’t find my way back.  The main menu of the NAB site doesn’t make it obvious where the multimedia is stored.  Everybody tells me that the NAB conference is so huge that you get lost onsite.  But do I need to experience the same thing on the web?  Lesson to be learned:  if you’re going to spend all that money creating on-line tv and radio content, make it easy for people to find!

I’m glad my faith is restored by finding that there is at least a bit of NAB online content.  But overall, I am still disappointed that all the great sessions that I couldn’t go to are not available in podcast form.  Heck, I’d even pay for it.  But they’re not giving me the option.  That’s what I mean when I say the broadcast industry can’t spot an opportunity when they see one.  If I would pay to listen, I’m sure others would too.

The NAB and Podcasting

I don’t know very many people in broadcasting who isn’t at least a little bit intrigued by the idea of going to the big NAB conference. NAB stands for the National Association of Broadcasters, the big trade association for broadcasters in the U.S. , mostly of the commercial kind. The annual conference is THE event of the year .. huge blowout with outstanding speakers, and anybody who is anybody in North American broadcasting and beyond is there.

In terms of conference locations, Vegas is not my first choice. But I sure would love to wander around the trade show and dream about all the great equipment I could equip my studio with.

Alas, I’m not in Vegas this week. So I thought I would go vicariously by going to the conference website. I was hoping I could hear or see some of the presentations online. Especially the keynote address by actor, director and activist Tim Robbins (Mr. Susan Sarandon, you know him?). I am listening to his address right now as I write. Curiously, I did not find it on the NAB website.

I do remember reading that the Robbins address was broadcast on the NAB website — but it was in Real Time. Just like television. It is not archived anywhere. Just like television.

Looking further into the NAB website, I noticed that there is a conference stream devoted to learning about podcasts. But still no podcasts on the NAB site.

At first I was surprised. But thinking about it, not so much. What I think we’re seeing is that NAB is giving the nod to the idea that podcasting and vodcasting exists. And because they understand basic economics, the conference organizers know that there will be people who will pay a registration fee to learn about podcasting.

Here’s my theory — in the mind of some broadcasters, podcasting is a threat. I wonder if the reason that there are no podcasts on the site is that they think that podcasting might go away if they don’t encourage it. After all, the commercial radio industry is a child of the music business .. where the response to all things internet is to either a) put their heads in the sand b) loudly proclaim the death of our society if people download music or c) scare everybody by dragging college kids into court for downloading music. The idea that you create a business model which works WITH the new technology still is something which hasn’t caught on in with either the music or the broadcast execs.

Getting back to the conservative nature of the radio industry — I remember back to a conference of Ontario commercial radio broadcasters I attended about 15 years ago. One of the presenters (not a broadcaster) asked the question “what was the best decade for your industry?” The answer. The Fifties. THE FIFTIES ??!!! That response boggles my mind. And what we’re seeing is a 1950’s response to a 21st century technology.

So maybe that is a reason why there are no podcasts on the NAB site.

I’ve still been able to hear a lot of the sessions by listening to bootleg NAB podcasts all over the net. Including the keynote address by Tim Robbins. So much for the Head in the Sand theory ..

Towards a new definition of Radio

Those of you who have known me for a while have known me primarily as a radio person. And, like most radio people, I have been watching the steady and speedy advance of the internet and wondering what changes it is going to mean for us whose hero is Marconi.

The response from a lot of radio people, and most notably, the corporate owners, has consisted of the usual handwringing and doing things that haven’t changed what we do. The most common adaptation has been this — put up an internet audio stream of the existing signal .. and to put up a website with the same information that is on the air. Essentially the response has been, stay with what works. Don’t change the product.

The problem is, the current way of doing radio doesn’t work. That’s why we’ve seen so much consolidation of ownership .. the way to make it work is to cut back on expenses by bundling up four radio stations together. Because individually, they’re not generating enough revenue to generate the profits that the owners want.

It’s a far cry from the little town radio station that made enough money to get by, where the owner lived in the same town. But old time radio is passe, done, history, right?

Maybe not. I am hearing more rumblings now that radio as we know it can carve out its niche by becoming once again what it used to be .. local. And personal.

Old time radio has much to teach us. In the “golden years of radio”, stations responded to their local community. They understood that a radio wasn’t a jukebox.

The stats are showing now that people aren’t going to radio stations to listen to music. The people who are really into music are going to the internet. Why? Because they don’t want somebody else choosing their music for them.

So with the music audience gone, who is listening to radio now? I was talking to a friend of mine who has sold radio ads nationally almost as long as radio has been around. He told me that it’s the office listening crowd that is keeping the ratings up.

Think back to the last time you listened to radio at work. How much attention were you paying to what was coming out of the speaker? Not much, right? Background music. And it’s only a matter of time before advertisers clue in to the idea that their expensive ads are also background sound.

I can’t understand why some people react to change by insisting the sky is falling and then retreating into a bunker to wait for the apocalypse. The world is not going to end for those far-sighted radio owners who understand the strengths of RF based radio.

I have a few ideas … and a lot of them relate to the idea that the radio transmitters that survive are going to be broadcasting material that matters to people in their own city. They want to hear the voice of the person down the road, not some computer. They won’t be turning on the radio to hear the newest releases from the music machine in New York and London. The internet will have it first.

What they can’t get from New York and London is the guy down the road who can talk about things on the way to work. Who can talk about what the weather is doing. Who somehow has a connection with the place where they live and work.

I have always believed that people don’t go to the radio to hear music. They want to hear the voice that can talk to them about the music. The key is, they want someone to talk to them. If they just wanted to listen to music, they’d pop in a CD. Or download.

When I was managing CFMU at McMaster University, our slogan was “Redefining Radio”. It’s still their slogan .. and I hope many stations also take up that challenge. Because if radio is going to survive, it needs to redefine itself …

and maybe we don’t have to invent something totally new. Maybe we just have to look back at what we were doing 75 years ago …